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Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray

After bringing her father home during her first whirlwind trip thorough the multiverse Marguerite is faced with a new challenge. Paul’s soul has been splintered into four pieces, in order to recover the pieces Marguerite must sabotage her parent’s research in two dimensions. If she does this Wyatt Conley will tell her the location of the final piece of Paul’s soul and the formula to save Theo’s Nighthief ravaged body. But what she finds may change things in ways she never imagined.

We are introduced to five new worlds in this one and return to the Russiaverse. First up is a medieval Rome where both men and woman serve in the clergy, second is a war torn San Francisco, third is a New York where Paul followed in his father’s footsteps, and fourth is Cambridge, England where Marguerite’s parents are working on a different application for the Firebirds. Finally, we see the Home Office, aka the dimension that started it all.

The Rome verse was intriguing, but we never learned why both men and women where in the clergy. The war torn universe was perhaps the most interesting, but it brought up a lot of unanswered questions. Like who were they at war with? Were they still fighting WWII and the players had evolved, or had the Cold War ignited into a real war? How exactly did they plan to use the Firebirds to turn the tide of the war? How did Marguerite end up with Theo? The Mafiaverse was also interesting because it represents an entirely different path for Paul to have taken, but I have to say I saw it coming a couple of pages before Marguerite put it together. I mean, Paul’s Russian, his parent’s are “bad people” and he doesn’t talk about his past. The mob, whether it’s Italian, Irish, or Russian, all have operations in New York. It wasn’t that hard to put together.

Our return to the Russiaverse reintroduces us to the Grand Duchess Marguerite, and we get to finally meet that world’s Theo. This Marguerite is hiding a secret, but it’s not too surprising after the events of the last book. I really hope this version of Marguerite ends up happy. Unlike the others, she doesn’t have many choices in her life that are her own to make. She has no freedom as a royal to chose much of anything in her life because she is expected to make a politically advantageous marriage. I also like that it’s through her we find out that due to Marguerite’s status as a perfect traveler, they all remember everything that she did while using the other version’s bodies and that led her to finally get to know her Henry as more than her tutor.

As for the Home Office, wow. That was a scary prospect. Consumerism to the extreme. But there were some major reveals here so I don’t want to talk to much about it. Spoilers and all. And then there was that ending. Whoa. I was shocked. I took to twitter and tweeted my friend who had suggested these. It’s a good thing I had brought the third home with me, I don’t think I could have waited until I got back to work to find out what happens next.

All in all, I give this one Four and a Half Lightsabers for this one. It was one hell of a ride.